Earth is made up of a core of metal, an overlying mantle layer of hot rock and a thin crust on top. Oceanic plates collide with continental plates in areas such as the Pacific Rim, triggering earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Subduction is a slow process, with a slab taking about 300 million years on average to descend, said study co-author Lowell Miyagi, a mineral physicist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Mysteriously, prior research that scanned Earth's interior found that many slabs appear to slow down and pool together in the upper part of the lower mantle, at depths of about 930 miles (1,500 km). More »

TOKYO (AP) — There are two kinds of ramen in this world. There's the packaged staple of dorm-room cuisine, one of the most processed, industrialized foods ever invented. And then there's the trendy, artisanal, handmade soup that fans line up for hours to try. More »

By Megan Rowling SENDAI, Japan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women's vulnerability to disasters is a sign not of weakness but of inequality, and barriers to women taking the lead in protecting themselves must be removed, top politicians and officials told a U.N. conference on Saturday. Philippine Senator Loren Legarda said statistics showed women face greater risks in times of disaster. Most residents trapped in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina were African-American women and their children, she said. Pregnant and lactating women have special needs that are often neglected, and women are more prone to sexual abuse, trafficking and other forms of violence in the aftermath of disasters, she said. More »

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has offered to cover Indonesia's costs for keeping two Australian heroin traffickers in prison for life if Jakarta grants permanent stays of execution, the foreign minister said Thursday. More »

A senior Indonesian minister has warned a "human tsunami" of asylum seekers will be unleashed on Australia if it keeps pursuing clemency for two drug smugglers. Andrew Chan, 31, and Myuran Sukumaran, 33, are due to be executed by firing squad after being convicted of drug smuggling in Bali 10 years ago. But a growing campaign to save the Australians has angered Indonesia, with security minister Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno warning its neighbour over asylum seekers. More »

TOKYO (AP) — Small clusters of survivors, bundled up against a chilly wind, gathered along Japan's northeast coast Wednesday to remember the nearly 19,000 lives lost in the March 11, 2011, tsunami. Four years later, the region is still struggling to recover. Associated Press photographer Eugene Hoshiko returned to the devastated town of Rikuzentakata last week for the first time since the immediate aftermath of the disaster. More »

British businessman Richard Branson has joined calls for clemency for convicted foreigners on death row in Indonesia, as an Indonesian minister warned of a renewed influx of asylum seekers into Australia if it continues to push the issue. Virgin founder Branson said on 11 March he and fellow members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy had written to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, calling the planned execution of up to 11 foreigners a barbaric and inhumane form of punishment. More »

By Jane Wardell SYDNEY (Reuters) - British businessman Richard Branson has joined calls for clemency for convicted foreigners on death row in Indonesia, as an Indonesian minister warned of a renewed influx of asylum seekers into Australia if it continues to push the issue. Virgin founder Branson said on Wednesday he and fellow members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy had written to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, calling the planned execution of up to 11 foreigners a barbaric and inhumane form of punishment. The planned executions by Indonesia of the death row inmates, most convicted on drug smuggling charges, have been condemned internationally. More »

LETPADAN, Myanmar (AP) — Hundreds of riot police charged at students protesting Myanmar's new education law on Tuesday, pummeling them with batons and then dragging them into trucks, bringing a quick, harsh end to a weeklong standoff. Police threw stones and jumped over fences as they broke up the demonstration. Some students and monks were chased into a Buddhist monastery, said Honey Oo, a student leader. More »

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The yearlong search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has turned up no sign of the plane, but that doesn't mean it's been unproductive. It has yielded lessons and discoveries that could benefit millions, including coastal Australians, air and sea travelers and scientists trying to understand ancient changes to the earth's crust. More »

The towering Danish ship Kobenhavn set sail from Argentina one December day, bound for Australia with five dozen souls aboard. Eight days later, as it traversed the South Atlantic, it radioed a nearby ... More »

SYDNEY (AP) — Inside a remote island prison in Indonesia, two Australians facing death by firing squad await word of their fate. To some, they are ruthless drug smugglers who deserve to die. To others, rehabilitated do-gooders who deserve to live. The question of which characterization is correct has threatened ties between two once-close countries, both convinced they are right. More »

An earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties. It was felt by people on land but there was no panic, Indonesia's disaster agency said. Indonesia, badly hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, straddles the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a highly seismically active zone where different plates on the earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes. More »

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A strong earthquake struck off western Indonesia on Tuesday, causing some residents to panic, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage and no tsunami warning was issued. More »

By Amantha Perera PERALIYA, Sri Lanka (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When the Indian Ocean tsunami swept ashore on Dec. 26, 2004, Supunsara Methmani was just eight years old. She remembers running to a temple in her village of Peraliya and waiting fearfully until the waters receded. “People didn't know - no one knew what it was or how to get away from it,” said Amini Ashanki, a 20-year-old woman from the same village, around 90 km south of the capital Colombo. It took over two and a half hours for the tsunami generated by a powerful undersea earthquake northwest of Indonesia to reach Sri Lanka’s southern shores. More »

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast on Monday, South Korea's military said, in a likely show of anger at the start of annual U.S.-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang says are preparation for a northward invasion. North Korea regularly conducts such test firings of missiles, rockets and artillery, and they are often timed to express the country's dissatisfaction with actions by its archrivals, Washington and Seoul. Monday was the start of military drills that will run until the end of April. More »

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck 182 km (110 miles) northeast of Ende, Indonesia, at a depth of 562 km, on Friday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of significant damage. There was no threat of a tsunami, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. BMKG, Indonesia's meteorological agency, said the quake occurred in the middle of the ocean about 104 km northwest of East Flores. More »

By Jane Wardell and Kanupriya Kapoor SYDNEY/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott struck a conciliatory tone on Thursday after speaking with Indonesian President Joko Widodo about the looming execution of two convicted Australian drug traffickers. Abbott said he spoke with his "friend" Widodo on Wednesday evening, adding that the Indonesian leader "absolutely understands our position ... and I think he is carefully considering Indonesia's position". Widodo has denied clemency to 11 convicts on death row, including Australian, French, and Brazilian nationals, ratcheting up diplomatic tensions amid repeated pleas for mercy. Abbott had previously angered Jakarta by linking his pleas for clemency for the pair to Australia's aid to Indonesia after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. More »

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop called on Indonesia to give two Australians on death row an "indefinite stay of execution" as she clarified her Prime Minister's comments linking their fate to aid, media reports said Saturday. More »

By Jane Wardell SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott attempted on Thursday to play down allegations of bullying Indonesia as a diplomatic rift deepens between the uneasy neighbours over Jakarta's planned executions of two Australian drug smugglers. Australia has been pursuing an eleventh-hour campaign to save Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, convicted in 2005 as the ringleaders of the "Bali Nine" plot to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia. Abbott drew strong criticism from Jakarta on Wednesday for linking his pleas for clemency for the pair to Australia's aid to Indonesia after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. More »

Australia's Prime Minister has said the country will feel "grievously let down" if Indonesia executes two Australians on death row despite the A$1billion in help it gave following the 2004 tsunami. Tony Abbott's comments drew an angry response from Indonesia and marked an escalation in the war of words between the two neighbours over the cases of Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31. The pair are members of the so-called Bali Nine, convicted in 2005 as the ringleaders of a plot to smuggle £2m of heroin out of Indonesia. Mr Abbott said he continued to make "the strongest possible personal representations" to Indonesian President Joko Widodo. More »

By Charlotte Greenfield and Matt Siegel JAKARTA/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Indonesia owes it to Australia not to execute two Australian drug offenders on death row, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday, ratcheting up a diplomatic war of words that is threatening to sour relations between the neighbours. Australia has been pursuing an eleventh-hour campaign to save the lives of Myuran Sukumaran, 33, and Andrew Chan, 31, two members of the so-called Bali Nine, convicted in 2005 as the ringleaders of a plot to smuggle heroin out of Indonesia. Indonesia has harsh penalties for drug trafficking and resumed executions in 2013 after a five-year gap. Abbott urged Indonesia to remember the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, saying Australia would feel "grievously let down" if the executions proceeded despite the roughly A$1 billion in assistance it rendered after the disaster that killed hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia's Aceh province. More »

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Now on the menu in Beijing for Chinese New Year: lots and lots of American lobster. Exports of U.S. lobster to China have rocketed in the past few years, largely to satisfy the appetites of the communist country's growing middle class, to whom a steamed, whole crustacean — flown in live from the United States — is not just a festive delicacy and a good-luck symbol but also a mark of prosperity. More »